What should be done with P-I boxes?

The Seattle Times doesn’t quite know what to do with the thousands of P-I newspaper boxes scattered around the state. (Photo by Andrew Bettger)

What do you do with 3,000 empty metal boxes?

That’s what The Seattle Times is trying to figure out.

Over the next 30 days, the city’s surviving daily newspaper plans to visit street corners around the state to gather all the bright red boxes that held the product of its deceased rival, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“In the unwinding of the JOA (Joint Operating Agreement) we have many operational pieces. The boxes are one small part of that,” said Times spokeswoman Jill Mackie. “Exactly what will happen with the boxes has not been determined.”

Over the last week, we’ve gotten several e-mails from people asking about the boxes, or proposing ideas on what to do with them. One reader suggested they become street-corner canvases for a neighborhood art project.

Got any other ideas?

Update: Great responses, all. (Special props to whoever dreamed up the “newsbot”.) Here’s another P-I related development, from Chris Grygiel at our Strange Bedfellows politics blog: Looks like City Councilmembers want to make the P-I globe a historic landmark.